Federal preservation officials oppose oil field near Bear Butte

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    April 3, 2011
    http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_99a2d254-5da8-11e0-961d-001cc4c002e0.html

The National Park Service is opposing proposed oil-well development north of Sturgis because of its potential impacts on Bear Butte, a sacred site to Native Americans designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Don Stevens, chief of the History and National Registry Program for the park service's Midwest region in Omaha, Neb., said his office sent letters of concern over the oil drilling project last week to the state historic preservation and natural resource officials in South Dakota.

"We told them we felt the drilling would adversely affect the qualities for which the National Historic Landmark was established -- its significance to the American Indian people, particularly the Northern Cheyenne," Stevens said. "We asked them to reconsider authorization of the drilling because of its potential impacts."

The notice from the park service comes as an area environmental group, Defenders of the Black Hills, is asking for a federal hearing on the oil-field proposal because of its potential impacts on Bear Butte. Defenders coordinator Charmaine White Face wrote the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources arguing that a federal hearing is merited because of the national landmark status of the butte. White Face sent a copy of the letter to the park service at its National Historic Landmark program.

She said South Dakota was lucky to have Bear Butte as a state park but that its significance went beyond that designation and state control.

"It is an honor for the state of South Dakota to have under its state parks system such an historic landmark," White Face wrote. "However, Bear Butte is a national historic landmark, and it must have national input on anything that might harm or impair the significance of this national historic landmark."

Drilling oil wells and developing the required infrastructure for storage and transport could produce such harm to Bear Butte, she said.

Stevens said, however, that the National Park Service does not have authority to require hearings on this issue. Since there are no federal permits involved and it isn't on federal property, the authority for permitting appears to rest entirely with the state, he said.

"If it were a federal action and there were a federal agency involved in authorizing the drilling right, then the National Historic Preservation Act would require a consultation process that the National Park Service would be a part of," Stevens said. "The park service has the authority to monitor threats to historic landmarks, but we don't have legal jurisdiction unless there's a federal undertaking."

The state Board of Minerals and Environment and its staff at DENR has primary permitting responsibility for oil and gas fields. After a hearing last November, the board granted a permit to Nakota Energy LLC of Wilmington, N.C., to develop a well field on up to 960 acres of land north of Sturgis and west of S.D. Highway 79. Part of the field comes within 1-1/2 miles of Bear Butte.

But after initial drilling had begun, state historic preservation officials determined that Nakota Energy had missed some steps in the process, including how the development would affect the visual qualities at Bear Butte. Because of that, another hearing on the project before the Board of Minerals and Environment was set for April 21 in Pierre.

Other opponents to the project have joined the hearing as interveners, including the Lower Brule, Rosebud and Standing Rock Sioux tribes in South Dakota and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana, as well as an individual Yankton Sioux tribal member.

The board meeting begins at 10:15 a.m. CDT on April 21 in the Matthew Environmental Education and Training Center of the Joe Foss Building at 523 E. Capitol in Pierre. DENR oil and gas supervisor Fred Steece of Pierre said people may attend and sign up to testify that day.

"They'll limit you to a few minutes, but you can come and say what you want to," he said.

Comments may be sent in advance to Steece at 2050 W. Main St., Suite 1, Rapid City, SD 57702 or by email at Fred.Steece@state.sd.us.

Stevens said Bear Butte is unusual among the 2,500 National Historic Landmarks because it doesn't have human-constructed components that contributed to its designation.

"It is, I would say, not typical because most landmarks are man built," he said. "Having a natural feature that has cultural significance and therefore is sort of part of the natural fabric of history and culture, it's a bit unusual."